Bangalore-Anchetti-Hogenakkal

30th Aug,
Desperately needed to ride this week so at 10:PM , messaged XBHP guys asking if any one were in for a ride, replies poured in asking for the destination, I just wanted to ride away from Bangalore, as usual JOHN replied back " Anchetti 70kms from Kanakpura, meeting point cool joint 5:30". I was happy that some one would be riding with me, didn't bother him asking what was the place famous for. Slept at 3:00 AM, me and santu went for a small night ride , he wanted a cigg :D, happy we went out as it was a while we went out at that time (around 1Am), we were going out lot when Pradhyumna was in India(Missed u buddy).

5 Am, woke up took a quick shower, reached BDA complex at 5:40, john joined me 10 mins later, we procceded to cool joint met Prof.Najundappa and his friend, got to know Manju had a flat tyre he said he will be joining at Metro. Took few pics at metro while waiting for Manju and Jasir.

Manju and Jasir joined after 20 mins, without any delay we left, took Jasir as pillon cruised at 90's and reached Kanakapura around 8:30, stopped for breakfast, Thanks Prof sir breakfast was good.

As we closed in on Anchetti, the view was sooper, we stopped at many places took some pics . Jasir took out my camera and became our camera man for the day. The place cant be described in words. so more pics.

Beautiful Roads



Water Splash

Loved this route



The last 2-stroke in production :)

Had a close incident here, but lucky me and jasir brought down our legs in time and avoided the fall.

My other half

Roads while going to hogenakkal


Roads while coming back from hogenakkal




Very close to Hogenakkal



At Hogenakkal





As hogenakkal was not in our plan and it was around 2 when we reached the place, we finished our lunch, i again couldn't eat fish :(. As it was getting late we skipped the boating plans, just went to some near by falls and and a quick dip and left from there. While coming back we took the Dharmapuri-krishnagiri route coming back.

Riders and Steeds
Prof. Nanjudappa - Unicorn
Mithun- R15
John- P220
Manju- P150(fastest)
Diwakar-ZMA.

First hand Pillion Report:

Wanted to know how good was R15 for pillion on long rides, here is a small review from JASIR
who was pillion for 250+(out of 350)kms. Thanks for the review JASIR

As I was lazily getting up from the ring of my phone I understood that I was being dragged for a ride for which I had very little time to be prepared about. My bike was not serviced so Manjunath had me pillion his bike till he got a puncture, however, we were lucky enough to get a shop open the wee morning hours to get it fixed and I needed change of bike since Manju was concerned about the reliability of the tire.

Mithun was kind enough to pillion me on his R-15 and I was a bit surprised at the seat of this thing, it was small and wasn't wide like commuter bike, the footrest was high enough to play drums on your knees :D. That being apart, I was more overwhelmed by the comfort of the seat being a sports bike. We started from 6.30 AM to 5.30 PM and I was on the back of the rider all the time. On a serious tone, the back seat was considered at the time of the designing of the bike, even on a long trip, no back or butt sores, it's like being bike chauffeured the entire trip, it relaxing cool and awesome. Once you have got the comfort zone of the seat, you can actually make an aerodynamic seating with the rider and experience pure speed or cruise (at 90 kmph). There was also a time where we had a slight slip on moss on a road bridge, and another great thing was the foot rest was kept at a right height for me to jump out and get my hands and knees under the bike before it fell on the sides. Unlike the other bikes your foot does lay on the other side way down, it just shrugs at the back of the bike for a quick dismount.

Thanks Mithun for the experience, not only was I in love with the R-15 before but also intensified it since I'm sure that it can give comfort to someone sit behind me.


For more Pics click here.

First 1k Kms On R15

This is the intial review of R15 with 1000 kms on Odo.

Finally after a long wait got the bike on 28/06/08 from Pancahe Yamaha Showroom, got to know the bike will be registered only on Monday, so left the showroom after fitting the RVM's. At the end of the day the odo was reading 80 kms.


The Bike :)


As i had decided to mototune the bike, woke up early and headed to NICE road did a 30 kms run and couldnt change the oil as oil filter was not available and my mech adviced me to run-in atleast 500 kms and then change the oil.



At 11 Am headed towards my native for bike puja, took Lords blessing and headed back

The odo read 350 kms, so now i can comment something,
1.Bike feels under powered at lower RPM under 5k, post that RPM it does what it is meant to do.
2.6th is a boon in high ways, bike feels very relaxed.
3.Handling is top notch.
4.First gear false neutral occasionally.
5. Getting adjusted to the riding position takes times, say 3 days.

Completed 500 kms changed the oil, no oil filter was available yet(cleaned it though). Now thought of checking the mileage, bike came to reserve n a bunk luckily, so filled in 3 ltrs of petrol and reset the trip meter. The next 80 kms the bike was ridden in heavy traffic rode it in first 4 gears a lot and occasionally 5 th .(Forget the 6th gear in city.) Saturday was there so decide to go out of city for peace of mind, headed to Mysore road CCD, bike came to reserve and trip meter read 115 kms.
Mileage
So 75% of city riding and 25% high [speed b/w 60-90 kmph] - 38 kms

Filled in 2 ltrs again to test it in high ways and maintained the speed between 80-115 kmph, at 90 kms the bike came to reserve,
so 90 kms/2 ltr = 45/ltr

Not bad right. :)

On 6th went out with XBHP guys and had lot of fun, and to my surprise my dream bike was there FZ6.
Touched a top speed of 130 in 5 th gear the same day, dont worry R15 has lots of speedo error but was doing speed between 115-118 kmphr for sure.

Today '09/07/2008' Odo read 967 kms at the service station.

Review after 1k kms.
1. Feel in love with the bikes handling.
2. No vibe at high speed.[Fairing/Engine]
3.Bike pulls very well after 5k mark.
4.Its as got a smooth gear box.
5.Brakes are very good.

This weekend planning to do a proper speed runs, hope to get access to some GPS so that can measure true speed.

Accessories list

Trip to Kemmanagundi

After ooty plan was cancelled because of the Hogenakkal issue, we decided to go to Kemmanagundi.

Route Taken:
Bangalore ---Tumkur---Gubbi--Arsikere--Banavara--
Kadur---Birur---Lingadahalli ---Kemmannugundi

Distance: 650 kms (Including roaming in and around kemmanagundi.)

Places Visited: Falls, Mulliangiri,Chikmagalur ,Z-Point,zoomed in Bhadra wildlife
(Few more place were left out because of the time constraints like Bababundengiri and some falls at the foot steps of the kemmangundi.)

Stay: The number is 08261237126, ask for satish and book Dattatreya bhavan if available.
Thats the best room, else ask for Virupaksha rooms (recently renovated).
Cost is pretty low, 200 and above for each room (+ 4% VAT)(Contact address taken from(XBHP).

Best Part of the ride -->
Road from Chikmagalur to lingadahalli were too good the curves ,the night ride made it more fun and bad road, full moon day ;) from lingadahalli to Kemmanagundi (20 kms) made it more adventureous :D.

Some Pics:

Z-Point

Things that moved me-->
1. The climate in and around kemanagundi, the cool brezze(that kept me alive inside my cramsters)
2. After talking with the localities we came to know that, kemangundi doesn't have good facilities, not even bus facility, only one private bus comes to that place once a day at 4:30 PM and the population of the place is around 300 now, 4 years back there were more than 1000 people working alone in mines which were closed down. All have left now and the people who were working in mines have registered a case for some compensation which is going on from 4 years.
More than 3 company's were taking out resources from this place and once all was taken out its almost abandoned now. If Horticulture dept need to do somethings then the forest dept guys will put some objections. The Govt at least should develop the place and make it a better touring place with some good roads and facilities so that the localities will be benefited better then now.

Was bit Upset about :
because it didnt rain :(, it was only raining in night and in morning the sun was coming out bright..

This is was my first long trip of 650 kms on bike, and it was a great one.

Guys who did it


Bhatta aka Santosh



Kashi aka Ashwin



Pachi



Pathye




Dadieya aka Elephant mari ;)


Group Pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mithun.08/Kemanagundi

Pics By Bhatta: http://picasaweb.google.com/19.santosh/Santosh

My Next Bike YZF R15 -- No compromise Bike

Thanks for Bangalore wheels for such a wonderful video :)

In 2007 i was very much tempted to get myself a new bike, and came across the Yam's Gladiator which was displayed in 2006 Auto Expo and feel in love with the styling of the bike(was a bit fool than) and thought of waiting for it, and all went in vain and got my self a Shogun as 2-Strokes was always in my mind.

And CBZ Xtreme was launched, took a test ride and almost booked it as it was good in my dept, be it the handling or acceleration and yes the name CBZ. But for some reason my mind and heart didnt go in rhythm. i was happy with shogun so decided why go for same specification bike so dropped it.

The accident kept me out of action and 2007 almost ended and the speculation of Auto Expo started so decided to wait for it, Yamaha finally used there brain this time after 6 years after their 2-stroke era ended, there last performance bike was RX Z and no need to mention about it, it was priced 65k in 2003 i hope.

Jan 9 2008: Say the pics of R15 and FZ in XBHP and was very much intersted in FZ but after hearing the R15 performance figures claimed by Yamaha my wait for bikes ended.

Drawing on 10 years of YZF series development with a new fuel-injected engine and Deltabox frame The new YZF R15 invites you to “enjoy riding”

Engine type	Liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, SOHC, 4-valve
Cylinder arrangement	Single cylinder
Displacement	149 .8cc
Bore x Stroke	57×58.7mm
Compression ratio	10.4:1
Maximum power	17PS / 8,500rpm
Maximum torque	15 N.m / 7,500rpm
Starting system	Electric Start
Lubrication	wet sump
Engine oil capacity	1.0 liters
Fuel tank capacity	12 liters
Fuel supply system	Electronic fuel injection
Ignition system	T.C.I
Primary / Secondary reduction ratio	3.042 / 3.000
Clutch type	Constant-mesh wet multi-plate
Transmission type	Return type 6-speed
Gear ratios	1st=2.833, 2nd＝1.875, 3rd:=1.364, 4th=1.143, 5th=0.957, 6th=0.84

Frame type	Deltabox Frame
Caster / Trail	26° / 100mm
Tire size (Front / Rear)	80/90-17 / 100/80-17
Brake type (Front / Rear)	Hydraulic, single disc (Front / Rear)
Suspension type (Front / Rear)	Telescopic / Linked type Monocross
Headlight	12V35W / 35W＋35W

Overall length x width x height	1,995mm x 670mm x 1,070mm
Seat height	790mm
Wheelbase	1,290mm
Minimum ground clearance	160mm
Dry weight / Curb weight	120kg / 131kg

who doesnt love this

Bike will be launched in June for sure and Yamaha guys are very clear this time and mentioned this is a pure performance bike so (no)mileage guys excuse us and this remembers me of RD350 amd RX - Z and RX 100 the very best performance bikes ever produced by Yamaha in India.

The bike will be priced around 90k and its worth every penny..

Yamaha Rules again.

My Biking Life -- Real Life

Yes i dream and live in this world..

Bikes are 1 thing in my life that stays forever...
The passion toward the bikes started when i was 10 when i used to ride my dads bike(CD 100), only think i knew at that time was holding the handle bar and rolling my right wrist ;) started riding my self by 14.

Then 1 day i was bitten by 2-STROKE bug, it was the Legendary
RX-100 it was easily doing 100kmphr within no time it was my friends bike so couldnt ride for more time or more days.

After some days moved to banglore, was commuting to the college daily by friends Blue CBZ(still didnt have a bike of mine) loved the bike but then the pulsar was released so he sold the bike :( and got P150 :(.. He then started missing the CBZ (what say AJAY)..

Ok let me cut the crap and yes i was missing every part of biking..
untill the day i rode Ajays brothers SHOGUN.. for the first time i was frightned riding the bike and i could hear my heart beat loud.. Was completely in love with the beast..

Then started commuting to office by Ambition(gud bike)..

After 18 months from the day i rode the beast (read SHOGUN) i brought it for myself.. April 4 was the happiest day of my life.




The beast was in good condition but was not taken for long time so wanted to spend some 3k and here is where my 2-stroke life started..
Gave back Ambition to my dad and started commuting to my office.. i was doing 50 kms daily and my beast was giving a mileage of 28 kmpl for the way i was riding...

Then my beast was introduced to Sathya, a very good doctor for 2-wheels.. he tuned it and brought back my beast looks to stock condition.. thanks for the fairing and side sheilds..

Many things happened with me and my beast for last 11 months from now, even broke my collar bone when i was doing a wheelie(yes i know i flipped no need to laugh though), nothing happened to my bike, that took me off to ride my beast for hard 45 days...

The 48th day i did a max speed of 105kmphr and again broke something but it was not my part but of my beasts.. i was reving so hard that the piston :( broke at 80kmphr and bike halted...

My mech was very upset because he had put so much time to get my bike to that state.. took back the bike and it was there for a week in garage.. sleepless nights for me.. :(

Then reconstructed the whole engine, it was first rebore for my bike.. :) then came the hardest time for any biker, the running in period couldnt go past 50kmphr, and the running in was 2.5k, my mech wanted it even longer.. did many nighouts and touring to near by place to complete it, even once i rode the bike for whole night..

My bike now is at its best condition, no hassels, thanks to my mechs and me :D(yes even i take care for it.)

One thing about the SHOGUN its a UNTAMED machine.. and no body can tame it..